Lady Vols basketball announces European tour. Here's where they are headed.
Lady Vols basketball is heading to Europe this summer.
Tennessee will make stops in Italy and Greece, playing two games during a trip that will last from June 11-22, the program announced Monday. The opponents and venues have yet to be announced.
"We are grateful to have this opportunity to travel overseas, see historic sites and incredible scenery first-hand and get an early start on 2023-24," Tennessee coach Kellie Harper said in a school release. "Having a few practices beforehand, playing games abroad and sharing amazing experiences over two weeks will allow us to build camaraderie and chemistry for next season. We can't wait to embark on this journey together."
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The Lady Vols will start in Venice for two days for sightseeing before playing against a local team. Then they'll head to Rome for two days, where they'll play their second game. The team will use the rest of the trip for excursions in Pompeii and Sorrento before heading to Greece for the last days of the tour.
This is the second European Tour and third international trip during Kellie Harper's tenure of four seasons. The first trip to Europe was prior to the 2019-20 season, which was Harper's first season at her alma mater. The Lady Vols went 3-0 on the trip during redshirt senior Tamari Key's freshman year. Tennessee's other international trip happened last season, as it played in the 2022 Battle 4 Atlantis at Paradise Island, Bahamas.
Tennessee holds an overall 25-9 record in the program's history in international contests, going 17-7 in exhibition contests and 8-2 in countable games during the regular season.
There have been six other foreign tours in program history for exhibition games, including Brazil in 1987, England in 1992, Belgium/France/Switzerland in 1999, Italy and Greece in 2003, Italy in 2015 and the Netherlands/Belgium/France in 2019.
Tennessee's four other international trips were for in-season tournaments like the 2022 Battle 4 Atlantis, including the 2013 Junkanoo Jam in the Bahamas, the 2017 Cancun Challenge and the 2019 Junkanoo Jam in the Bahamas.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Lady Vols basketball announces games in Italy, Greece this summer
